UK Commercial Finance
UK commercial property investment reached £10.9 billion in the second quarter of 2026 alone, though the market genuinely isn’t moving as one unified whole – alternative assets now account for 55% of activity, offices 23%, industrial 13%, and retail just 9%, with meaningful divergence in performance between sectors. Whether you’re buying the premises your business trades from, investing in commercial property to let out, or growing a portfolio of commercial units, commercial finance is assessed on genuinely different principles to a standard residential mortgage – and increasingly, which specific sector you’re buying into matters as much as the financing structure itself.
The Core Decision: Occupier or Investor
Our Occupier Mortgages page covers buying premises to trade from yourself, assessed against your own business’s financial performance, while our Investment Mortgages page covers buying to let to a separate business tenant, assessed instead against the property’s rental income and Interest Coverage Ratio.
Growing Beyond a Single Property
Our Portfolio Mortgages page covers consolidating multiple commercial properties under a single facility, and our Bad Credit Mortgages page covers accessing commercial finance where credit history complicates a standard application.
Office, Retail and Industrial Property
Our Office Mortgages page covers a sector currently seeing 3% annual rental growth driven by a genuine shortage of prime city-centre stock, our Retail & Shop Mortgages page covers high street and retail park units, and our Industrial & Warehouse Mortgages page covers logistics and distribution space, a sector that remains in strong demand though lenders now favour modern, energy-efficient buildings specifically over older stock.
Hospitality and Licensed Trade
Our Pub & Restaurant Mortgages page and Petrol Station Mortgages page cover trading businesses genuinely valued on their going-concern performance, worth understanding as a fundamentally different valuation approach to most commercial property.
Agricultural, Franchise and Education
Our Farm & Agricultural Commercial Mortgages page covers financing a working farm business, our Franchise Mortgages page covers how your franchise agreement itself becomes part of what a lender assesses, and our Schools & Nurseries Mortgages page covers regulated childcare and education premises.
Storage
Our Storage Unit Mortgages page covers self storage, a genuinely resilient asset class commonly converted from older warehouse stock.
Refinancing an Existing Commercial Mortgage
Our Commercial Remortgage page covers when refinancing genuinely improves your position, particularly relevant given a significant portion of UK commercial debt is approaching refinancing at materially higher rates than when it was originally arranged.
Mixed-Use and Rental-Specific Scenarios
Our Semi Commercial Mortgages and Commercial Buy to Let Mortgages pages cover mixed-use and rental-specific commercial scenarios in more detail.
Deposit and Loan-to-Value: What Genuinely Varies
Most commercial mortgages require a deposit of 25-40%, meaningfully higher than residential lending, reflecting the genuinely different risk profile lenders assign to commercial property. The exact figure depends heavily on your specific sector, whether you’re an occupier or investor, and the strength of any tenant’s lease – a well-let office with a strong covenant will typically unlock a considerably better loan-to-value than a speculative purchase with no confirmed income.
How Commercial Valuations Genuinely Differ From Residential
Unlike a residential valuation, based primarily on comparable local sales, commercial property is often valued on an income basis – capitalising the rental income a property generates, or could generate, at an appropriate yield for that sector and location. This is exactly why two commercial properties in similar locations, of similar size, can have meaningfully different valuations if their rental income or tenant strength differs.
Why Sector Choice Genuinely Matters More Than It Used To
Given the real divergence in performance between commercial sectors right now, it’s worth researching genuine current demand and rental growth for your specific target sector before committing, rather than assuming all commercial property behaves similarly. A strong industrial asset in a location benefiting from e-commerce growth is a fundamentally different proposition to a secondary retail unit in a struggling high street, even though both fall under the same broad “commercial property” label.
Not Sure Which Category Applies to You?
If you’re weighing up several property types or want a genuinely comprehensive sector-by-sector overview before diving into specifics, our Complete Guide to UK Commercial Finance covers the full landscape in one place, and our piece on commercial property investment 101 covers the fundamentals worth understanding before your first purchase.
Getting the Right Lender for Your Sector
Given how much genuinely varies between commercial sectors right now, and how selectively lenders are pricing risk across each one, it’s worth working with a broker who understands your specific property type properly. Get in touch with details of your business or investment plans, and we’ll help you find a lender genuinely suited to your commercial property finance needs.
Frequently Asked Questions
What deposit do I need for a commercial mortgage?
Typically 25-40%, meaningfully higher than residential lending, though the exact figure depends on your sector, whether you’re an occupier or investor, and the strength of any tenant’s lease.
What’s the genuine difference between an occupier and an investment commercial mortgage?
An occupier mortgage is assessed against your own business’s financial performance; an investment mortgage is assessed against the property’s rental income and Interest Coverage Ratio from a separate tenant.
Why do commercial valuations sometimes differ so much between similar properties?
Commercial property is often valued on an income basis – capitalising rental income at an appropriate yield – rather than purely against comparable sales, meaning tenant strength and lease terms genuinely affect the figure.
Does every commercial sector perform similarly right now?
No, genuinely not – alternative assets, offices, industrial, and retail are each performing quite differently, worth researching your specific target sector rather than assuming uniform performance across commercial property generally.
What if my business or property doesn’t fit neatly into one of these categories?
Get in touch with details of your specific situation – many commercial purchases combine elements of several categories, and a broker experienced across the whole market can identify the genuinely right lender regardless of how your circumstances are labelled.
Get in touch with details of your business or investment plans, and we’ll help you find a lender genuinely suited to your commercial property finance needs.
